“I’d Feel Too Guilty”: Why Brad Keselowski Did Not Follow Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Lead Early in His Career

2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion turned team owner Brad Keselowski was once a rookie in the sport and had his fair share of reservations about stepping up to the big leagues in stock car racing. During an interview with veteran NASCAR journalist Jeff Gluck in 2015, Keselowski revealed why he did not prefer to listen to music before or during a race, and the reason surprisingly involved Dale Earnhardt Jr.

He said, “I remember when I was testing at Daytona when I’d first gotten the ride with JR Motorsports and Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. had the earplugs for all that. I thought, ‘Oh, that might be a good idea.’ And I was like this close.”

“And then I thought about it and I was like, “What would my team guys think if I was listening to music in the car because I was bored?” It felt like that would be really de-motivating to them and they’d feel like I didn’t care. So I’d feel too guilty,” added the now 40-year-old.

In this rare instance, it seems to have benefited Keselowski to have not followed Dale Jr.’s lead, who is arguably one of the best drivers in the sport to have not won a Cup Series championship.

Keselowski’s addiction to his phone

During the same interview, the former Team Penske driver also touched on what had somewhat been a common opinion surrounding the Michigan native. Often accused of being addicted to his phone, Keselowski defended himself when Gluck asked him about the same and said:

“I feel like I take more positives away from my phone than I do negatives. People think anytime I’m on my phone, I’m on Twitter (X) – which is kind of depressing to me at times. Like I’m just randomly tweeting a fan every time I’m on it? Don’t get me wrong – I enjoy that. But a lot of times, I’m reading.”

“I own a lot of books, but the majority of reading I do is not in a book – it’s on my phone. I barely use my computer; everything is on my phone. Whether it’s emails, reading books or magazines, I do almost everything on my phone. So I feel like people mistake that for something other than what it is,” he elaborated

Despite what one might think of his addiction to his phone, Keselowski heads into the 2025 season as one of the more promising contenders in the sport, both from an individual and a team standpoint, especially after RFK’s recent Ryan Preece signing. It remains to be seen if the racing outfit can take the next step come the new season in February next year.